Episode 458 - There's Always A New Woah

[DaltonMaltz 1119]

Comedian Chill Trill Bill Kottkamp makes a grand return to Who Charted! Bill joins Howard, Stard, and Hugo in counting down the Music Chart all while busting out his best relationship rhymes and vaudeville jokes. Later, we’ll hear about TikTok strategies and where all the diners went during the Movie Chart, and comedian Max Beasley joins for another selection of Hot Picks. Plus, a special announcement.

[Moeron87 0]

Signed up to the forum after listening for 6-7 years... super bummed that Howard Kremer will not be apart of my weekly life... so disappointed the one of the OG shows is going behind the paywall completely... how long before CBB is going behind a paywall? Can ya give me like a months heads up? This fuxking sucks.... but I guess I get it.... it’s a fucking money maker nowadays.

[DanEngler 5249]

1 hour ago, Moeron87 said:

Signed up to the forum after listening for 6-7 years... super bummed that Howard Kremer will not be apart of my weekly life... so disappointed the one of the OG shows is going behind the paywall completely... how long before CBB is going behind a paywall? Can ya give me like a months heads up? This fuxking sucks.... but I guess I get it.... it’s a fucking money maker nowadays.

It's a bummer, but Stitcher Premium is a way to keep shows alive when they don't publish often enough or have enough listeners to attract advertisers. The same thing happened with With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus, Raised by TV, and The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project. Howard was probably presented with the option of either moving to Premium or being canceled altogether, and he chose to keep making the show for fans willing to pay a small amount to subscribe.

In my opinion (as someone who does not work for Earwolf) Stitcher Premium is worth $5/month solely to not have to listen to 5+ ads on every episode of CBB and HDTGM. But you also get access to a lot of exclusive shows like the CBB live tour, Threedom, Andy Daly's new The Great American Cabinet Of Curiosities, the Hollywood Handbook Pro Version, stand-up albums, and more stuff than you could possibly listen to in one lifetime. It's a pretty great value if you can fit it into your budget.

[Bugs Meany 69]

5 hours ago, DanEngler said:

In my opinion (as someone who does not work for Earwolf) Stitcher Premium is worth $5/month solely to not have to listen to 5+ ads on every episode of CBB and HDTGM. But you also get access to a lot of exclusive shows like the CBB live tour, Threedom, Andy Daly's new The Great American Cabinet Of Curiosities, the Hollywood Handbook Pro Version, stand-up albums, and more stuff than you could possibly listen to in one lifetime. It's a pretty great value if you can fit it into your budget.

I agree. You can just listen all day without ever having to tap +15 to skip ads--it's very liberating. And a yearly subscription comes out to $3/month. That's hours and hours of content for the price of a jar of peanut butter. Even if you sign up just for Who Charted, it's about 50 cents/hour to keep Howard on the air. It's so worth it.

[Kickpuncher 5012]

Dan, I get your point, but then Premium shows go away with no advanced notice, too.  [FWIW, none of this is really directed at you; maybe someone who actually does work for Earwolf will read it.]  This happened recently with RBTV and Preem Stream (which I actually enjoyed more than Whooch prime), and WSGLL suddenly ended a "season"; if I'm subscribing for a year at a time, I'd like to have some assurance that the shows I listen to will actually still be around.  After ~2 years of subscribing, I've listened to everything in the back catalog that I want to listen to, and at that point, I think it's really debatable as to whether it's good value for money.  The media landscape has evolved beyond the point where companies can have the attitude that they can just charge $5/mo and people will pay it because it's essentially nothing, because when everyone does it, it really adds up.

(I know it's weird to be complaining about Premium when the context is another show being added to Premium, but the point is that I sympathize with everyone who doesn't have Premium, and it's hard to blame them at this point.)

[DanEngler 5249]

4 hours ago, Kickpuncher said:

if I'm subscribing for a year at a time, I'd like to have some assurance that the shows I listen to will actually still be around.  After ~2 years of subscribing, I've listened to everything in the back catalog that I want to listen to, and at that point, I think it's really debatable as to whether it's good value for money.

That's fair. One benefit of both Stitcher and Patreon is that the monthly fee grants you access to the entire back catalog, so someone could theoretically move the same $5 charge to a different subscription every month and binge on the new content there. That's too much administrative overhead for me, so I've deliberately adjusted my TV/movie/live event habits to afford multiple audio subscriptions instead.

[Fwee Wub 0]

I welcome the value added to my stitcher premium sub (working on year 3) but I hope this doesn't affect too many fans of the show.  I sub to stitcher preem for back eps of I4H, and that alone makes it worth the yearly sub (really not much at all), but also love With Special Guest back eps, Hollywood Handbook Pro Version (and ads version!,) and Teacher's Lounge (now minisodes).  There are some good limited specials, and the Marvel stuff.  And now Whooch.  It's worth it.   

[DanEngler 5249]

FWIW, here's what Engineer Brett posted on the Earwolf subreddit:

Quote

I know the news is a bummer for some of you. It basically came down to Stitcher Premium or the end of Who Charted. This allows Howard and I to carry on the show, and gives him the freedom to create more great stuff in the future. Ideas are brewing!

The chartists mean the world to us, some of you have been supporting us for nearly a decade at this point. For those already subscribed to Stitcher Premium, this won’t feel like much of a change. For the rest, I hope you consider getting the free trial, I think you’ll find that SP has thousands of hours of Earwolf gold that makes it extremely worth it. Thank you for sticking with us!

[Mrguy2019 1]

Max Beasley ! Just what the show needed another young, white hipster's opinion !

[souprman 10477]

it's five fucking dollars people, get over it.